Production of Mixed Rare Earth Oxides (REOs) from Coal-Based Resources

Request for Proposal -

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Feasibility of Recovering Rare Earth Elements (REE) Program, in accordance with Call to Action 1 within Executive Order 13817 on A Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals, is developing processes to recover REEs from coal and coal by-products in an environmentally benign fashion, using U.S. coal-based resources that initially contain a minimum of 300 ppm total REEs.

DOE’s REE Program consists of three key technology areas:

• Enabling Technologies: Develop DOE’s technology knowledge base through resource identification, field sampling and characterization, techno-economic analysis development, and field and/or process sensor development.
• Separation Technologies: Address the viability of utilizing commercially available extraction and separation equipment and/or systems that have been developed for alternate technologies, and demonstrate their capability (i.e., technology transfer) for the extraction and separation of REEs from coal-based materials (e.g., coal, coal refuse, clay and shale over/under burden materials, power generation ash, acid mine drainage (AMD) sludge and AMD fluids).  In parallel, develop new or novel transformational REE extraction and separation concepts.
• Process Systems: Design, construct, and operate bench-scale and small pilot-scale systems to validate the capability of producing REEs from coal-based resources.

DOE’s REE Program has demonstrated the technical feasibility of extracting REEs from coal-based materials.  The REE Program has currently moved into bench-scale and engineering-scale prototype materials processing, with technology and engineering scale-up challenges and opportunities being addressed.

See attached solicitation for additional details.